By Carl Lamarre, billboard.com
Early Tuesday morning (March 21), singer-songwriter Wyclef Jean was detained and briefly handcuffed by Los Angeles police after he was mistaken for a robbery suspect.
The New York Times reported that police approached Jean at a gas station near a studio he was recording in. After their swift encounter with Jean, they handcuffed him without any explanation.
According to police, they were seeking a suspect who was involved in an armed robbery in the West Hollywood area at around 1 a.m. PT. The suspect was described as a black armed male donning a dark colored hoodie with a red bandana. He was spotted fleeing the scene in a gold or tan Toyota sedan.
After the robbery occurred, police found Jean wearing a red bandana in a vehicle similar to the suspect’s getaway car. Police requested Jean to exit the vehicle and placed handcuffs on him. Irked by the sequence of events, Jean shared a clip of him being arrested on Twitter.
“I’m in L.A. right now coming from the studio with T-Baby and y’all see the police have handcuffs on me,” he said in the 18-second video. “They just took off my Haitian bandana. That’s what’s going on right now with Wyclef in L.A. right now. The LAPD have me in cuffs for absolutely nothing.”
Jean was later released after other police officers identified him as the wrong person. After the incident, Jean continued to address the matter on his Twitter. “LAPD another case of mistaken identity. Black man with red bandana robbed a gas station as I was in the studio working but im in handcuffs?” He added, “As some one who has law enforcers in my family, I was appalled by this behavior of the LAPD.”
In another video that he posted on Instagram, Jean said that he intends to sue the police. The New York Times also reported that the police eventually found the right suspect and arrested him.
Take a look at Wyclef’s tweets below.
Read more at http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7735485/wyclef-jean-handcuffed-arrested-los-angeles-robbery-suspect